Goddard says professional pathway will fix ref howlers

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Brendon Goddard.

FOOTY great Brendon Goddard would consider becoming an AFL umpire if the league chose to provide a full-time professional pathway for the game’s officiators.

Admitting the game was one of the hardest in world sport to officiate, the former St Kilda and Essendon star said the fact umpiring at the elite level was only a part-time role made no sense and potentially contributed to a high number of controversial decisions each weekend.

In the light of another contentious weekend of decisionmaking, Goddard said the AFL needed to look at making its umpires full-time.

“If the AFL made umpiring a full-time job and the money was right, I’d consider it,” Goddard said on RSN’s Footy Fix.

“I love the game, it’s (umpiring) an important part of the game.

“I have been harsh on this … (but) past players respectfully have a better feel for the game because they have been there and experienced it.”

Goddard said he understood that the COVID financial squeeze to hit every level of the game made the full-time move a difficult one for the league, at least in the short-term.

But given the AFL is a billiondollar industry, he said it made sense to source the best options for umpires, which would also give local and junior umpires a more financially rewarding career path to chase.

He suggested if the

AFL guaranteed umpires an annual salary of about $200,000, it would attract more former players to that pathway, allowing them to stay in the game.

“It (also) gives a pathway for younger, aspiring umpires grinding away each week at junior level … umpiring four games a weekend … (to show) there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Goddard said.